March 2013 - Wal-Mart has completed the installation of more than 4.5 megawatts (MW) of solar panels atop twelve Ohio stores. The project is expected to produce 6 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year—approximately 10-15 percent of each store's power consumption. The systems are owned and operated by SolarCity, which will sell the electricity to Wal-Mart through a negotiated power purchase agreement. The new solar installations account for nearly a tenth of all the solar currently installed in Ohio. Currently, Wal-Mart has 240 renewable energy projects underway worldwide, including three recent solar installations completed in Kahului, Kailua-Kona, and Kapolei, Hawaii. The Hawaii installations each have a capacity of 311 kilowatts (kW) and are expected to individually produce 400,000 kWh annually.

January 2013 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its quarterly update to the Green Power Partnership (GPP), which details the top companies, municipalities, schools and governments that voluntarily purchase green power. Since the EPA's GPP update in October 2012, Staples and Intel have both purchased enough green power to account for 100 percent of each company's electricity use. Staples moved from 80 percent up to 101 percent powered by green power through purchasing an additional 120 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable energy. Intel moved from 88 percent to 100 percent by purchasing 300 million kWh. Cisco also moved up eight slots to ninth place in the GPP's National Top 50 rankings by purchasing 190 million kWh of green power.

September 2012 - The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Vote Solar Initiative have released a report ranking the top U.S. commercial solar customers by total installed solar capacity in megawatts (MW). In addition to aggregate solar capacity, the report provides information on the number of installations and the number of states in which solar systems are currently operating for each company. The top five U.S. commercial solar customers are Walmart (65 MW), Costco (38.9 MW), Kohl's (36.5 MW), Ikea (21.5 MW), and Macy's (16.1 MW). In addition, General Motors was the top American car company on the list, coming in at number 13 overall, with 5.6 MW from 13 solar systems.

Some commercial customers purchase solar renewable energy certificates (SREC) to meet electrical demand with renewable generation sources, but such transactions are not considered as part of this report's company rankings. Additionally, in the case of the companies discussed in this report, some sell the SRECs generated by the company's solar system to utilities or other buyers, and even those customers who sell the system's SRECs were considered for the purposes of this report's rankings.

July 2012 - Walmart has installed its 100th solar system in California on its College Avenue store in San Diego. The combined output of Walmart's California solar systems are expected to generate 70 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy and provide 10%-30% of each facility's annual electricity needs. For the College Avenue installation, Walmart worked with SolarCity, which has installed, managed and maintained 70 of the 100 California solar systems for Walmart.

Walmart has now installed more than 150 solar systems on its stores in the US, and has a goal of 1,000 solar systems on its US retail outlets by 2020.

February 2012 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completed its quarterly Green Power Partnership rankings, which recognizes leading organizations for their green power efforts. Wal-Mart moved up in rankings from 15th to 3rd in overall green power use, behind Intel and Kohl's, who retained their top two rankings. Wal-Mart increased its green power use from about 263 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) as of October 5, 2011 to more than 872 million kWh as of January 5, 2012. The Green Power Partnership rankings only include Wal-Mart's California and Texas facilities.

Sprint also moved up the Green Power Partner rankings, from 20th place to 13th place on the Fortune 500 Partners List, and up from 45th place to 26th place on the National Top 50 Partners List. Sprint increased its green power use from about 107 million kWh as of October 5, 2011 to 176 million kWh as of January 5, 2012. Supermarket retailer Ahold USA made the Green Power Partnership rankings for the first time, with more than 149 million kWh of annual green power use.

May 2009 - Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced a plan to add solar panels on 10 to 20 additional Wal-Mart facilities in California within the next 18 months. This commitment is in addition to the 18 solar arrays currently installed at Wal-Mart facilities in the state. When combined, Wal-Mart’s total solar installations are expected to generate up to 32 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy per year and create about 130 jobs. The company is also planning to add solar panels to an additional five stores in Puerto Rico this year and a total of 22 in Puerto Rico over the next five years.

In addition to its solar installations, Wal-Mart also purchases wind energy in Texas to supply about 15% of the retailer’s energy load for approximately 350 stores and other facilities in that state.

November 2008 - Walmart Stores Inc. has announced its first substantial wind energy purchase in the U.S. Under an agreement with Duke Energy, the company will purchase approximately 226 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, beginning in April 2009. The purchase commitment, representing about 15 percent of the retailer’s energy load in approximately 360 Texas stores and other facilities, will be sourced from a Duke Energy wind farm currently under construction in Notrees, Texas. In addition to the wind purchase, Walmart also has plans to equip up to 22 locations in Hawaii and California with solar panels.